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A simple example of such a problem is to find the curve of shortest length connecting two points. If there are no constraints, the solution is a straight line between the points. However, if the curve is constrained to lie on a surface in space, then the solution is less obvious, and possibly many solutions may exist.
In the case of a single parameter, parametric equations are commonly used to express the trajectory of a moving point, in which case, the parameter is often, but not necessarily, time, and the point describes a curve, called a parametric curve. In the case of two parameters, the point describes a surface, called a parametric surface.
Taking an example, the area under the curve y = x 2 over [0, 2] can be procedurally computed using Riemann's method. The interval [0, 2] is firstly divided into n subintervals, each of which is given a width of 2 n {\displaystyle {\tfrac {2}{n}}} ; these are the widths of the Riemann rectangles (hereafter "boxes").
Let each curve C t in the family be given as the solution of an equation f t (x, y)=0 (see implicit curve), where t is a parameter. Write F(t, x, y)=f t (x, y) and assume F is differentiable. The envelope of the family C t is then defined as the set of points (x,y) for which, simultaneously,
Although it is easily visualized on the graph (which is a curve), the notion of critical point of a function must not be confused with the notion of critical point, in some direction, of a curve (see below for a detailed definition). If g(x, y) is a differentiable function of two variables, then g(x,y) = 0 is the implicit equation of a curve.
A Bézier curve is defined by a set of control points P 0 through P n, where n is called the order of the curve (n = 1 for linear, 2 for quadratic, 3 for cubic, etc.). The first and last control points are always the endpoints of the curve; however, the intermediate control points generally do not lie on the curve.
If the curve passes through the origin then determine the tangent lines there. For algebraic curves, this can be done by removing all but the terms of lowest order from the equation and solving. Similarly, removing all but the terms of highest order from the equation and solving gives the points where the curve meets the line at infinity.
As an example, consider the advection equation (this example assumes familiarity with PDE notation, and solutions to basic ODEs). + = where is constant and is a function of and . We want to transform this linear first-order PDE into an ODE along the appropriate curve; i.e. something of the form